Profile Frank DalyFrank Daly believes in making tax payment as painless as possible, while doing his best to penalise people who have hidden their hot money for years, writes Colm Keena
There were seven convictions for serious tax evasion during 2003, compared to three the previous year. No-one went to jail though there was one suspended sentence handed down.
In the recently published Revenue Commissioners Report for 2003, it was pointed out that the level or severity of the sentences imposed by the courts is, of course, a matter for the courts.
It is possible to read the remark as a not particularly coded expression of dissatisfaction by the Revenue of the courts. It could be read as saying; the Revenue has been doing its bit in terms of changing society's attitude towards tax cheats; don't blame us for decisions made by judges.
Prison sentences aside, a great deal has been achieved by the Revenue in recent years in terms of improving the public's respect, or fear, of it as an institution. The organisation has undergone its most significant restructuring since the foundation of the State, the hidden hot money of yesteryear is being discovered, and the billions are rolling in.
At the healm for much of this period of transition has been Frank Daly, the Waterford-born former Customs man who has been a Revenue Commissioner since 1996 and chairman since March 2002.
Holder of a B Comm from UCD and a diploma in European Community law, Daly is a public service manager with an interest in business, a man who takes pleasure in running a large organisation as efficiently as possible and who believes in making tax payment as painless as it can possibly be, given what is involved, while ensuring that those who try to evade the system are caught and punished.
Recentyears have seen more than €1.5 billion rolling into the Exchequer as a result of a number of special inquiries being run by the Revenue. These are the bogus non-resident accounts inquiry , the NIB inquiry, the offshore assets inquiry, and the Ansbacher inquiry.
Apart from the Ansbacher inquiry, which is proving a particularly tough nut to crack, the others are expected concluded in the near or not too distant future.
The speed with which the inquiries have been conducted is due to the decision to offer special low-penalty inducements for those who came forward voluntarily. Those who did not come forward risked increased penalties, public identification, and possible prosecution.
Behind much of this are new powers given to the Revenue in 1999 and this year and which allow it go to the High Court to get access to certain classes of information held by banks and other financial services institutions. As one senior tax advisor put it recently, "they have managed to frighten the bejaysus out of people".
The beauty of all this from Frank Daly's point of view is that this huge backlog of hot money is being collected at speed and without devoting enormous amounts of Revenue resources to it. What he wants is to deal with the issue comprehensively so that the Revenue can get on with its core job, raising proper taxes and preventing evasion.
Daly was born in Abbeyside, Co Waterford, in 1945. His father was a postman in the Dungarvan and Ring Gaeltacht areas. Daly went to the Dungarvan Christian Brothers School and in 1963, having studied for a few months in St Patrick's Teacher Training College, took up a job in the Customs and Excise Service.
There followed a few years where he lived in digs in various parts of the State, working on all various of the Customs service. During this time his work sparked an interest in business and he signed up for an evening B Comm course in Universtiy College, Dublin. He got his degree in 1970.
In 1973 he was involved with preparations for Ireland's membership of the EU and this sparked an interest that led to his taking a diploma in European Community law, with the Dublin Institute of Technology, in 1975.
Promotion in 1976 led to a two year stint with the Dept of Agriculture working on the control of intervention beef in the EU, following which he was appointed district manager for Customs in Galway.
Eleven years later he moved back to Dublin to take on responsibility for the introduction of electronic filing in the Customs service. Up to its introduction importers had to file hard copy Customs documention with the Customs in the ports.
In 1993, with his promotion to the position of assistant secretary, he moved from Customs into the general Revenue service and began working on the preparation of a strategic plan for the organisation. The appointment occured at a time when the Revenue was contemplating fundamental change and the old structure whereby it was organised under different tax heads, has been switched to one where it is more focused on the individual taxpayer. The old Dublin command structure has been abolished and replaced with regional structures and devolved decision-making.
Daly was appointed a Revenue Commissioner in 1996, just in time for when the proverbial was hitting the fan. The revelations came fast and thick: Haughey; Ansbacher; NIB; AIB; DIRT. The Revenue took a battering and Daly is on record as saying that it was a low point for his organisation.
"It affected morale. Frontline staff would meet taxpayers who would say to them: why should we pay you when you sat back and did nothing about the big people?" He says the organisation regrouped very quickly.
Given their job it is no surprise that the Revenue service has a sort of close knit feel about it and Daly is very much a "company man". He is known to defend the performance of the Revenue in the 1980s and early 1990s, despite the huge amounts of hidden funds from that period that have since been discovered. The Revenue did its best given the powers it had, is his line.
The scandals led to the granting of strong new powers to the Revenue in 1999 and there is no denying that Revenue's use of these, coupled with reduced tax rates, has led to increased respect for the Revenue and greater compliance.
Daly's plan is to deal with the backlog issues quickly so the service can devote its energies to ensuring that what happened in the past does not happen again. Many of the people caught in recent years have been left feeling very sorry that they had not paid their initial taxes and invested what was left, a strategy that would have left them much better off than they are today.
This lesson is filtering out and adding to compliance. Daly is known to feel, however, that not enough debate takes place about the damage done to society by those who do not pay their taxes and has compared it to society's tolerant attitude in the past towards drinking and driving.
The task of managing and developing an efficient Revenue service is one he will have to let go in 2006, when he retires. He has a boat down in Waterford and likes to go sea-fishing. A reader, he is fond of historical novels and is one of those readers who liked Cold War thrillers so much he finds it hard not to lament the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the winter he likes to reread Dickens.
He married his wife, Elaine, in 1972, and they have two sons, aged 30 and 21. He lives in South Dublin.